Maybe I shouldn’t have written anything about dramatic entrances? Maybe I was tempting fate? Where and with what weather conditions might it be a very bad time for the engine to start to fail? I can tell you… In the middle of the second busiest shipping lane in the world and in the midst of a sudden torrential thunderstorm passing directly overhead with 35 knot gusts laying the boat right over and a waterspout about a quarter of a mile away. That’s where!
The story goes like this……. Singapore is just 20 miles away to the NW from Nongsa Point across the incredibly busy Singapore Strait which the yachts are advised to cross at the narrowest part 12 miles to the west of Nongsa. Several of us left as early as possible that morning to make sure we would arrive in Singapore in good time. The engine started perfectly and we were doing well for the first few miles but then it started to sound as though it was getting short of something…fuel or air maybe, so we managed to flag down another rally yacht, Fai Tira and asked them to stay close by just in case….. This they were happy to do (many thanks John and Pete!) in spite of having their own engine troubles….transmission I believe. The VHF radio was very difficult to use at the time as the airways were full of ships talking to each other while trying to stay away from one another.
We ploughed on with the yankee set to give us more speed as the sky darkened dramatically. The storm broke with almost horizontal rain bringing visibility down to less than a quarter of a mile. All the time, the engine was sounding more and more unhappy and we were only just making about two knots as we crossed the shipping lanes…one or two ships passing just a little too close for comfort….then the engine died completely, we could only just make way under sail and Fai Tira had to do a mercy dash around a small freighter to take our towline, which was all ready to go of course. We still had a few hundred yards of shipping to negotiate. It was close!!
Fai Tira towed us through choppy shallow waters until their engine started to protest and another Rally boat nearby, Laroobaa, took over as far as the marina breakwater. Many thanks to Guy and Simone! A few beers are now owed! After this, the delightfully helpful marina people were there to take us safely into the berth. A few minutes later, a mechanic from a local gin palace was on board and the problem quickly diagnosed and solved. (The gasket on the lift pump.) I know very little about these things except that it could have happened to anyone but that it so often seems to be Moonshiner! We were beginning to believe that this might really be the end of the Rally for Moonshiner as we didn’t know what the problem was at the time. The upshot of it all is that she is booked in for a major engine overhaul in Phuket, Thailand next month. We have just 600 miles and a month to get there so should be able to daysail gently up the coast……. I’ll let you know.
In the meantime, we are enjoying the luxuries of this very new marina at Keppel Bay. They are taking publicity shots for the marina at some point so we may appear on their website in due course. What I’ve seen of Singapore so far looks quite inviting too. I seriously intend to get to Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling. I feel I’ve earned one!
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1 comment:
Great story - ours was nowhere near as exciting! We too enjoyed our (many) gin slings in Raffles, but confessed to being mighty relieved none of us wanted a curry, especially at that price!
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